99-year-old voter casts his ballot again/Raymond Noss of Ruggles Township has been voting for 78 years

Megan EdwardsPublished: November 8, 2006 12:00AM

By MEGAN EDWARDS
T-G Staff Writer
RUGGLES He has voted for more than 78 years in more elections than he can recall.
Though he doesn't consider himself a political animal, Raymond Noss, a spry 99-year-old Ohio 60 resident, has made sure to vote in every election.
"I don't think I've missed one," he said Tuesday, after voting at Ruggles-Troy Township garage. "If I did, I was on the railroad. I don't believe I ever had thoughts of not voting."
Noss, who is native to the Greenwich area, was eligible to vote in the late 1920s, when he was about 21 years old. But he can remember elections in previous years when his father, a farmer, worked on an election board.
"In those days, I would help him unfold the papers," Noss said.
His family was predominately Democrat, Noss said, but about 60 years ago, a Republican relative ran for commissioner in the county. That swayed Noss to register as a Republican.
Noss, who has been married to wife, Donnabelle, 89, for almost 69 years, worked on the New York Central Railroad for 44 years beginning in 1928. He began his career as a brakeman, and eventually retired as a conductor.
He never paid much attention to politics, he said, but through work, he was able to meet many famous politicians and officials.
"I met Eleanor Roosevelt," Noss said. "And I met the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. He used to get on at Lindale and go to Columbus every day. He couldn't associate with the other lawyers on the car, so he would sit with us."
Looking back on his past 78 years of voting, Noss said not many elections stick out other than the U.S. presidential election of 1948. That election, considered by many as the greatest election upset in American history, had nearly all predictions indicating incumbent President Harry S. Truman would be defeated by Republican Thomas Dewey. Truman won, overcoming a three-way split in his own party.
The elections now, Noss said, have come a long way from what they used to be. About 50 years ago, elections were more low-key, Donnabelle Noss added.
"We didn't have TV and it was more localized opinions," she said.
Now, it seems campaigns and elections are more heated, Raymond Noss said.
"They sure rip one another up and down," Noss said, referring to the current political campaigns.
Noss and his wife don't watch too much television and stick to the newspapers for information on the election.
Over the years, Noss and his wife have seen many changes in the election process, including the recent change to computerized ballot-casting.
"It was quite a change because neither one of us have worked on computers," Donnabelle Noss said. "But it's not too difficult."
Noss said he and his wife will continue to vote in upcoming elections.
"Every vote counts," Noss said. "You should vote, whether you know who is going to be defeated or not. You should vote the way you feel. People are the power now."
n Megan Edwards can be reached at 419-281-0581, ext. 239, or medwards@times-gazette.com.